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WrestleMania 34
WrestleMania XXXIV will be the 34th annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by WWE, to be held on April 8, 2018 at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana. Production Background WrestleMania is considered WWE's flagship event, having been described as the Super Bowl of sports entertainment. The event will be the second WrestleMania to be held in the state of Louisiana, after 2014 and the second held at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Tickets went on sale on November 17, 2017, with individual tickets costing $35 to $2,000. On October 30, 2017, traveling packages with accommodation ranging from $1,150 to $8,525 per person were sold. American duo Chloe x Halle will perform "America the Beautiful" to kick off WrestleMania 34. Storylines The card will include matches resulting from scripted storylines and have results predetermined by WWE on the Raw and SmackDown brands. Storylines are produced on WWE's weekly television shows, Monday Night Raw, SmackDown Live, and 205 Live, the latter of which is cruiserweight-exclusive. At the Royal Rumble, AJ Styles defeated Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn in a handicap match to retain the WWE Championship. Later that night, Shinsuke Nakamura won the men's Royal Rumble match by last eliminating Roman Reigns. After the match, Nakamura called out Styles when questioned on his decision on which world title he would challenge for at WrestleMania 34, confirming his intention to face Styles for the WWE Championship and staying on SmackDown. Nakamura's opponent may change, however, as on the January 30 episode of SmackDown, Kevin Owens and Sami Zayn were scheduled to face each other the following week to determine who will face Styles for the title at Fastlane. That same night, Styles and Nakamura teamed up and defeated Owens and Zayn. Also at the Royal Rumble, Asuka won the first-ever women's Royal Rumble match, last eliminating Nikki Bella. As a result, Asuka earned the right to challenge for either the Raw Women's Championship or SmackDown Women's Championship at WrestleMania 34. Before she could make her decision that night, she was interrupted by former UFC star Ronda Rousey, confirming she had signed full-time with WWE. The following night on Raw, Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon convinced Asuka to wait until after Elimination Chamber to pick which championship to challenge for, as Raw Women's Champion Alexa Bliss was scheduled to defend her title in the first-ever women's Elimination Chamber match. Since men's Royal Rumble winner Shinsuke Nakamura chose to stay on SmackDown and challenge for the WWE Championship at WrestleMania 34, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle scheduled a number one contender's Elimination Chamber match at Elimination Chamber to determine who would face Brock Lesnar for the Universal Championship at WrestleMania. After previous WWE Cruiserweight Champion Enzo Amore was released from WWE on January 23, 2018, and the title was vacated, it was announced that a general manager would be appointed for 205 Live and would address the championship; 205 Live was previously controlled by the Raw General Manager as 205 Live is part of the Raw brand. On the January 30 episode of 205 Live, Drake Maverick (formerly known as Rockstar Spud in Impact Wrestling) was appointed as the 205 Live General Manager. Maverick announced that there would be a 16-man single elimination tournament to crown a new WWE Cruiserweight Champion, with the finals to occur at WrestleMania 34. The tournament began that episode with Cedric Alexander and TJP advancing to the quarterfinals by defeating Gran Metalik and Tyler Bate, respectively. Over the next couple of weeks, Kalisto, Roderick Strong, Mark Andrews, Drew Gulak, Buddy Murphy, and Mustafa Ali also advanced to the quarterfinals with wins over Lince Dorado, Hideo Itami, Akira Tozawa, Tony Nese, Ariya Daivari, and Gentleman Jack Gallagher, respectively. The quarterfinals occurred over the next couple of weeks with Alexander, Strong, Gulak, and Ali advancing to the semifinals by defeating TJP, Kalisto, Andrews, and Murphy, respectively. At WrestleMania 31, then-UFC star Ronda Rousey made an appearance alongside The Rock and confronted now-Raw Commissioner Stephanie McMahon and WWE Chief Operating Officer Triple H of The Authority, where Rousey attacked Triple H and scared Stephanie with an attempted armbar. This began speculation that Rousey would eventually come to WWE. She made some appearances over the next couple of years and was rumored to compete in the inaugural women's Royal Rumble match in 2018, but she denied she would be at the event. However, following Asuka's victory in that match, the now former UFC star made an appearance, confirming that she had signed full-time with WWE, and would sign her Raw contract at Elimination Chamber. At the event, Raw General Manager Kurt Angle, Stephanie, and Triple H introduced Rousey. Before she signed her contract, Triple H confirmed that there were no special stipulations in the contract, but Rousey would have her debut match at WrestleMania 34. Angle, who Stephanie previously threatened to fire and who Triple H had turned on back at Survivor Series, then brought up the incident from WrestleMania 31 and said that Triple H and Stephanie wanted to manipulate Rousey as revenge. This eventually lead to Rousey putting Triple H through a table, which caused Stephanie to slap Rousey, but ran before Rousey could attack her and Rousey signed her contract. The following night on Raw, in an attempt to keep his job, Angle said that he had lied and Stephanie thanked Angle for clearing the air, however, Rousey wanted an apology for Stephanie's slap. Stephanie then apologized, but as she and Triple H left the ring, Triple H attacked Angle. On the March 5 episode, Stephanie said that Rousey could choose any member of the active Raw roster as her opponent at WrestleMania except the champion; Rousey chose Stephanie. Angle said that although Stephanie was an executive in WWE, she also had a contract to compete as a wrestler. He then reminded Triple H of his warning following Survivor Series where if Triple H were to attack him again, he would retaliate. He said that Triple H also had a contract to compete as a wrestler, leading Angle to schedule Triple H and Stephanie to face himself and Rousey in a mixed tag team match at WrestleMania. On the [[March 12, 2018 Monday Night RAW results|March 12 episode of Raw]], a Battle Royal open to any female performer of any brand was scheduled for WrestleMania 34. The match, originally named in honor of WWE Hall of Famer The Fabulous Moolah, was introduced to serve as a female counterpart to its male version, the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal, which has taken place annually since WrestleMania XXX in 2014. However, a few days later, the match was renamed "WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal" due to the backlash from fans and critics regarding Moolah's past. On the March 19 episode of Raw, Sasha Banks became the first to announce her participation in the match. Throughout the summer of 2017, Kevin Owens feuded with SmackDown Commissioner Shane McMahon, which lead to a Hell in a Cell match at Hell in a Cell where Sami Zayn helped Owens defeat Shane. Zayn explained that during the Superstar Shake-up, he was glad that he was brought to SmackDown, which had been called the "land of opportunity", but he never got an opportunity, and after Shane ignored his warning about facing Owens, he realized that Shane did not actually care about him and Shane only cared about himself and that was why he saved Owens. He said that despite their rough history, going from being best friends in NXT to becoming bitter rivals, Owens was still his brother and he realized that Owens was right all along. At Survivor Series, Owens and Zayn attacked Shane during the 5-on-5 Survivor Series interbrand elimination match against Team Raw, which SmackDown ultimately lost. Shane then decided that at Clash of Champions, Owens and Zayn would face Randy Orton and Shinsuke Nakamura with himself as the special guest referee while also declaring that if Owens and Zayn were to lose, they would be fired from WWE. SmackDown General Manager Daniel Bryan added himself as a second special guest referee to keep the match fair, and during the match, Shane deliberately stopped his count while Zayn pinned Orton. Owens and Zayn won the match after Bryan gave a fast three count. Shane then believed that Bryan was defending Owens and Zayn as Bryan gave them both a WWE Championship match in a handicap match against AJ Styles at the Royal Rumble, but Styles retained by pinning Owens, who was not the legal man, which Shane ignored when the two confronted him. Tensions then started brewing between Owens and Zayn as Bryan scheduled them to face each other to determine the number one contender for the WWE Championship at Fastlane. That match eventually became a six-pack challenge, during which Shane twice broke up pinfalls involving both Owens and Zayn, and Styles again retained his title. Shane then took an indefinite leave of absence, but as one last decision, he scheduled Owens and Zayn to fight each other at WrestleMania 34. Owens and Zayn reacted by brutally attacking Shane. On the March 19 episode of Raw, without a tag team match at WrestleMania 34, The Revival (Scott Dawson and Dash Wilder) became the first to announce their participation in the annual André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal and declared that they would be the first tag team to win the match. Match Preview Matches ; ; *Brock Lesnar © (w/ Paul Heyman) vs. Roman Reigns for the WWE Universal Championship *A.J. Styles © vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the WWE Championship *The Miz © (w/ Curtis Axel & Bo Dallas) vs. Seth Rollins vs. Finn Bálor in a Triple Threat match for the WWE Intercontinental Championship *Alexa Bliss © vs. Nia Jax for the WWE Raw Women's Championship *Charlotte © vs. Asuka for the WWE Smackdown Women's Championship *The Bar (Cesaro & Sheamus) © vs. Braun Strowman & TBA for the WWE Raw Tag Team Championship *Cedric Alexander vs. Mustafa Ali in a Tournament final match for the vacant WWE Cruiserweight Championship *Kurt Angle & Ronda Rousey vs. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon *WrestleMania Women’s Battle Royal Battle royal *Kevin Owens vs. Sami Zayn *André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal Announced participants in the WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal As of , . : – Raw : – SmackDown : – NXT Announced participants in the André the Giant Memorial Battle Royal As of , . : – Raw : – SmackDown Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal controversy The WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal was originally named The Fabulous Moolah Memorial Battle Royal, but the announcement of The Fabulous Moolah as the namesake for the match drew significant backlash from fans and commentators alike. Due to allegations by numerous former female wrestlers that Moolah financially exploited and drugged the trainees she managed, and even pimped them out to male promoters, who sexually exploited or even raped them, Moolah was considered by many to be an ill fit for a memorial battle. David Bixenspan of Deadspin noted that the WWE's announcement that Moolah was a trailblazer for other female wrestlers and gender equality was ludicrous and discrediting towards other female wrestlers, considering the heavy allegations against her and her role in marginalizing women's wrestling. He concluded that "history is written by the victors" and pointed out that WWE could have picked a multitude of better suited women. A petition to change the battle's name at change.org gathered almost 10,000 signatures within its first two days. Initially, WWE reacted by disabling the comments section of their YouTube video that announced the Moolah battle royal. On March 15, Stephanie McMahon issued a statement announcing that the match name would be changed to the 'WrestleMania Women's Battle Royal' and the Moolah Memorial Trophy was nixed, thanking WWE fans for making their voices heard. According to a report by Deadspin, fans on Reddit started writing e-mails to main sponsor Snickers' parent company Mars, Incorporated, urging them to push WWE to change the battle's name. Furthermore, Deadspin and other media outlets requested a statement by Mars on the matter, which led the company to issue a statement calling The Fabulous Moolah's choice "unacceptable" and expressing their disappointment towards WWE. 90 minutes later, WWE dropped any reference to Moolah. Other on-screen talent See also *WrestleMania *List of WWE pay-per-view events *WWE Event History *Event gallery DVD release * [ WrestleMania XXXIV on DVD] External links * WrestleMania XXXIV Official Website * [ WrestleMania XXXIV on WWE Network] * [ WrestleMania XXXIV Pre Show at CAGEMATCH.net] * WrestleMania XXXIV at CAGEMATCH.net Category:WrestleMania Category:2018 pay-per-view events Category:World Wrestling Entertainment pay-per-view events